In many areas of television broadcasting, and sports broadcasting in particular, recorded video footage is often excerpted and displayed several times using a technique commonly known as video replay. One particular form of video replay is known as instant replay, in which a video excerpt or “clip” is replayed very soon after it has occurred. Video replays may be replayed at normal speed, at reduced speed (“slow motion”), at increased speed, or paused (“freeze frame”). In addition, video replays sometimes may be played in reverse. In combination, the application of all of these playback techniques is sometimes referred to as “scrubbing”.
Conventional replay systems typically rely on a plurality of skilled operators, who may continuously monitor a small number of video feeds (e.g., one or two each) and manually generate replay clips that may be of interest. Subsequently, at the instruction of a program director, the operator may manually control playback of the clip, which can be fed to a broadcast output in a studio.
Such an approach is labor intensive. Moreover, it may limit the ability of program directors to provide camera angles of interest in a timely manner for broadcast. For example, different operators may be responsible for different camera feeds, and it may be difficult to coordinate between the operators in such a manner so as to provide synchronized playback of separate clips, even though the clips themselves may display the same event from different angles.